444

Thirty Royal English Monks.

[CENT.8. of the people, whom they perfuaded that, provided they continued the oblations, the fervice would ftill be useful to them. Inftead of a real communion with bread and wine, they were therefore prefented with a substitute of a much less awful nature, bread over which folemn prayer had been made, and to which they gave the name of ballowed bread.

Those who, after partaking of the regenerating waters of baptifm, had relapfed into fin, were perfuaded that they might regain the purity they had forfeited by their iniquities, by the affumption of the monaftic habit, which contained all the virtues of a second baptifm. In confequence of this belief, and the increafing veneration for monaftic inftitutions, several monarchs affumed the habits of monks; and, in the short period of little more than two centuries, thirty English kings or queens refigned the fplendours of royalty for the retirement of a cloister. The fuperftitious and indolent Chriftian committed the welfare of his own foul, and that of his departed friends, to the care of an avaricious monk or prieft, who performed, or who affected to perform, in private, those prayers which were to relieve the fufferings of fouls detained in purgatory, and to enfure other bleffings to his liberal employer. During the long dominion of heathenifm, fuperftition had entirely exhausted her talents for invention; fo that, when the fame spirit pervaded Chriftianity, its profeffors were necef

CENT. 8.]

Celebration of Marriage.

farily compelled to adopt the practices of their deceffors, and to imitate their idolatry.

445

pre

Amongst the other fuperftitious obfervances derived from this fource, were the ceremonies made use of in cutting the hair of children. It had been usual not to cut the hair of a child till it had attained a certain age; and the person to whom the hair was fent was confidered as acquiring, by that means, a near degree of relationship to the child. The pagans usually appropriated the first cuttings of the hair of their infants as an offering to fome of their divinities. This pagan rite was, with numberless others, adopted by the Chriftians; and the Ordo Romanus contains feveral prayers which were anciently repeated upon that occafion, and are called Orationes ad tonfurandum puerum.. It has already been obferved that marriages were folemnized by the clergy, at a very early period, in the Chriftian world. The imperial laws declared, however, the legality of thofe matrimonial contracts which were not folemnized by the benediction of the clergy; and, from various reasons, the primitive mode of marrying was confiderably neglected. Some of the zealous emperors, who were difpofed to reform the abufes which had been practised in the church, confidered this as a culpable deviation from the primitive mode. In the year 780 it was enacted by Charlemagne, that no marriage should be celebrated in any other way than by a benediction, with facerdotal prayers and

oblations.

446

St. George and the Dragon.

[CENT. 8, oblations. About the year 900, Leo the philofo pher, the eastern emperor, revived the fame practice in the churches within his jurisdiction, which has continued ever fince that period.

One of the most important of the relics which were discovered in the course of this century was the head of the celebrated champion and martyr St.

George, who combated and deftroyed the dragon. The Greek infcription on the shrine, in which the venerable skull was inclofed, left no room to doubt of its authenticity; and Zachary, the Roman pontiff, transported with joy at the discovery of a treasure so inestimable, accompanied by the af fembled clergy and people of Rome, translated it with great pomp and folemnity to the church of St. George, where the ftupendous miracles which it daily performed continued long to attract the veneration of the whole city*. With the rage of collecting relics, that of pilgrimages, and of every abfurd obfervance which could affume the name of religion, increased in their reputation. Superftition, inculcated by the clergy, was eagerly received by the unlettered multitude. To enumerate further inftances, would be only to difguft the reader by an extended detail of the weak nefs and credulity of his fpecies. It is indeed impoffible to peruse the records of mankind, without painfully reflecting on the general tendency to depravity; and without lamenting the ravages of injuftice, or the triumphs of abfurdity.

Bower's Hift. of the Popes, iii. 341.

CHAP. III.

OF THE SECTS WHICH APPEARED IN THE

EIGHTH CENTURY.

Albanenfes-Ethnophrones-Opinions concerning the Nature of Jefus Chrift.

TH

HE great controverfy refpecting images fo fully occupied the attention of the Chriftian world, as to afford little leifure, whatever might have been their inclination, to attend to many other fpeculations. The fectaries of this period were even fewer than thofe of the preceding century, and continued but for a fhort time to interrupt the unity of the Church.

The Albanenfes, who derived their appellation from the residence of their founder, are faid to have revived the Gnoftic and Manichean doctrines of two principles. They denied not only the divinity, but even the humanity, of Jefus Chrift; and afferted that he neither fuffered, rofe from the grave, nor afcended into heaven. This fect entirely rejected the doctrine of the refurrection; affirmed that the general judgment was already accomplished, that the torments of the damned confifted only in the evils of the present ftate, that

free

Paganizers.

448 [CENT. 8. free will was not given to man, and that there was no fuch thing as original fin. To these tenets they added the practice of adminiftering baptifm only to adults; and affirmed further the unlawfulness of oaths, and that a man can impart to himself a portion of the Holy Spirit.

The Ethnophrones (Paganizers) profeffed Christianity, but at the fame time affociated every practice of the heathen world with the profef*fion of opinions diametrically oppofite to them. In conformity to this abfurd fyftem, they prac tifed judicial aftrology, every fpecies of divination, and carefully observed all the feasts and ceremonies of paganism.

Towards the close of this century fome opinions were propagated in Spain, which occafioned confiderable difturbance. Felix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, was confulted by Elipand, the archbishop of Toledo, concerning the fenfe in which Jefus Chrift was to be called the Son of God; and whether, as a man, he ought to be confidered as the adopted or natural Son of the Father. The reply given by Felix was acceptable to the archbishop-That Jefus Chrift, according to his human nature, could only be confidered as the Son of God by adoption, and a nominal fon. This decifion, which was propagated by the two Spanish prelates, was extremely offenfive to the greater part of the church. The cenfures of feveral courcils induced the timid Felix to make a re

tractation